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Kicking Off Your Online Listings Management Program

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of managing your online listings here on the Linkmedia 360 blog. No matter what industry you’re in, making sure that your business locations’ listings are accurate and up-to-date is vital so your customers can find you in the search results. If outdated information appears, such as an incorrect phone number or hours of operation, a consumer could go directly to one of your competitors instead, causing you to lose on the business.

So, now that you’ve recognized the need to manage your local online listings, you’re ready to implement a program. How do you get started? Well, after you’ve contacted Linkmedia 360, we’ll be able get a program together for you based on your current needs. What works for one client might not work as well for another, so we’ll do a little fact finding first and foremost to make sure we pick the program best suited for you.

The types of questions you’ll need an answer to are the following:

What type of program are you looking for? In other words, do you simply want your listings managed, or are you also looking for reputation management and/or social media monitoring?

How often would you like to see the results of how the program is working?

Do you want to control where your information is getting syndicated to?

Would you like to be able to view a dashboard to see your listings and how they are improving?

What is your budget for an online listings management program?

Based on your answers to those questions, there are two different solutions we can offer. One is a more robust program that includes a dashboard with a personal login so you can view your results, as well as click on direct links to the listings on the various websites. The second solution is more basic, with less reporting and “hands-on” results.

However, both programs do syndicate to all the major data aggregators, including Axciom, Neustar, Factual and Infogroup. The length of time to see results and improvements is also the same, due to the way these aggregators pick up and syndicate the submitted information across the internet. Some pick them up monthly, while others pick up the information less often. You should start seeing improvement in your listings within 4-12 weeks regardless of which program you choose.

Once the correct platform is chosen for your needs, we’ll be ready to kick off your program. Here are the basic steps taken and what we’ll need from you:

A list of your locations, preferably in an Excel document. This list should contain as much information as possible- the locations’ names, addresses, and phone numbers, as well as hours of operation, business descriptions, services provided and social media links.

Administrative rights to any Google+ pages – if these pages have not been created, we will do so and get them verified.

Any photos of locations.

Once we have all the needed information, an initial audit will be done to compare the location list against USPS records, Google+ pages and location pages on the company website (if applicable). We will then make recommendations on what can be changed – for example, if USPS records have the word “Street” abbreviated to “St”, we’ll recommend that the location pages and Google+ pages are updated to reflect that first and foremost.

After the initial audit, the spreadsheet will be completed further by LM360 and returned to the client for review for submission.

Syndication is done for all the major data aggregators.

Program is constantly monitored for improvements in the listings.

Make sure your customers are finding correct information in the search engine results! Contact Linkmedia 360 today for an initial assessment and get started with the best online listings management program for your needs.